Like barbacoa, Big Red and the breakfast taco, michelada belongs to S.A.

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As San Antonio asserts its primacy over barbacoa, Big Red and the breakfast taco, it also might lay claim to another cultural staple — the michelada.

The binational popularity of the spicy spiking of beer led to a commercial product and a trademark dispute that found its way out of the Alamo City’s bars, restaurants and party supply closets and into the federal courthouse.

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The dispute pitted local company SPFM L.P. against a California man over the mass production of micheladas — specifically, over a styrofoam cup with a layer of flavoring and spices around its rim.

You just add beer. But first, some history. There isn’t much.

The beverage was invented in Mexico as a form of cerveza preparada, or prepared beer, but its exact origins are murky, said Sarah Gould, lead curatorial researcher at UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures.

“The idea of taking a beer and making a ... mix for it is not new. Cerveza preparada comes in many different forms — take the English shandy, for example,” Gould said. “There are competing theories on when (the michelada) started, from the 1940s to the ‘70s.”

One legend puts it as far back as the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1917, placing Gen. Don Augusto Michel in his favorite cantina in San Luis Potosí, adding hot sauce to his beer and lime. The barkeeper reportedly named it for Michel and added chelada, a shortened version of chela helada, Spanish slang for “cold beer.” Some say the drink just translates as “my cold beer.”

“Like with a lot of things, people want to assign something, a particular food or drink, to a particular person,” Gould said.

Few bartenders agree on the ingredients. It depends on the region and who makes it. Some versions only contain lime and salt. Others load it up with spices, hot sauce, Clamato and/or Worcestershire or soy sauce. The concoction can be similar to a bloody Mary mix, or what’s known as a “Red Eye” drink popular in the U.S. Northeast, without the egg and Old Bay seasoning. The spices can also be used with other drinks besides beer, like mineral water or grapefruit soda.

Back to the dispute. The first commercially viable michelada cup was developed by Mario Felix of suburban Los Angeles in 2012, which he named “Don Chelada,” court records say. Two years later, he signed over the rights to SPFM and was to get royalties from the San Antonio firm’s mass production and distribution, according to court documents.

But rather than take his cut and walk away, Felix turned around and began producing a similar mix cup with names such as “Mucho Macho” and “Lotería,” among others, SPFM alleges. He also told buyers that he is Don Chelada and that he can sell the cups at a lesser cost, effectively undercutting SPFM, the company said in a trademark infringement lawsuit it filed against him.

At a court hearing in mid-December in San Antonio, SPFM asked U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez for an injunction to bar Felix from producing knockoffs and associating himself with the Don Chelada character.

No one disputes that Felix came up with the idea of the michelada cup. Anthony Caulder, an investor in California, testified that Felix approached him in 2012 and the pair formed a joint venture to make the original cups. But transporting them to Texas — a hot market — got expensive.

“We talked about moving to Texas to save $100,000 a year in freight,” Caulder testified.

Instead, the pair hooked up with SPFM, which makes or distributes other snack products, and then sold their interests to SPFM in exchange for royalties and commissions, Caulder testified, adding, “There was no intent for us to go into the michelada cup business anymore.”

But he later learned Felix was making the other cups, using the same or similar images as those on the Don Chelada cups — a mustachioed man with a large Mexican hat. When he warned Felix that he could get sued, “He said, ‘I gotta make a living. What am I going to do? What are they going to take from me? I have no assets,’” Caulder recalled.

Felix did not respond to the lawsuit and was a no-show at the court hearing. Attempts to reach him for comment on this story were unsuccessful.

SPFM said it invested a lot of time and money to get Don Chelada on store shelves nationwide, including at H-E-B and Walmart, and said Felix’s latest cups are not as good and use low-budget production methods that tarnish the Don Chelada reputation.

“The spices on the rim doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if you look at the competition...there’s gaps in the application, it’s uneven,” said Kendell Hodges, SPFM’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Company officials said they paid Felix a total of $450,000 to buy him out, and spent another $100,000 to grow the brand.

SPFM said it also employs “hundreds” of workers at its three campuses, including its headquarters on West Avenue and a factory and distribution center on the Northeast Side, and uses “top-secret machinery” to protect its acquisition, even using special coatings on its floor so the spices don’t stick to it, surpassing federal food and safety standards.

“We’re not even allowed to take our cameras in there for fear it will get out how we perfected the rim,” testified Rachel Moreno, an account executive with SPFM who markets the Don Chelada cup.

“It’s basically the cup that started this category,” Moreno testified. “You pay for what you get. We remain the No. 1 company because of the quality of our cup.”

But time after time, SPFM continues to hear from clients that Felix is out there, associating himself with Don Chelada and telling them he can get them cheaper cups.

“He has the audacity to take credit for the brand and what the brand has become,” Moreno testified.

Judge Rodriguez ruled in SPFM’s favor.

In an interview, Battah said his company had to protect its brand and its employees from the damage Felix continues to cause. Both he and Moreno take pride in saying that the cup is made in Texas, and specifically San Antonio.

Could it be yet another culinary rivalry resolved, finally, in San Antonio’s favor? Something to ponder over a cold, spiced beer.